9 Years Old

I just can't believe my baby girl turned 9 years old this year! We opted to have her party at our house so it was cheaper and she could invite as many girls as she wanted. Including Lauren we had a total of 12 girls and all of the parents dropped their kiddos off and decided not to stay so that meant Hubby and I were the only adults! But, the girls did great and had a lot of fun.

We decided to make the party theme garden/bugs. I was searching the internet for ideas of how to make that kind of a themed cake, and when I posted on facebook that this was the theme, a friend replied that she had a special cake pan that made 8 individual bug cakes. When Lauren and I saw it we loved it. The day before the party Evan and Lauren helped me frost the cakes. They actually decorated most of the cakes on their own and they did a fantastic job!

Ladybugs and butterflies

Dragonflies and bees

We took a trip to Party City to see what kind of decorations they had for the party and I was so happy to see that they had a bunch of things for our theme. One of the things was cute bug antenna tiaras that you see in the pictures. We also bought goodie bags and cute bottles of bubbles, tattoos, and pencils all in our theme.

The time for the party was 2 1/2 hours. The first 30 minutes the girls spent playing in our playroom downstairs and that allowed time for all of the late guests to arrive. When everyone was present, it was time for cake and presents.

Lauren chose the pink ladybug with purple spots for her cake

The next activity was painting nails. We had the girls sit on the floor lined up against the fireplace with their hands on the floor. Roger started at one end and i started at the other until we met in the middle. We painted the girls' nails red then went back and with nail polish pens put black polka dots on the red so their nails looked like ladybugs. It was really cute, but I didn't get a pic of the finished product. I think Roger should be nominated for Dad of the Year and Husband of the Year for helping me with this activity! Also, I am happy to say that no polish spilled on the carpet. (It's old and ugly and we hope to replace it in the not so distant future, but still...no spills!)

After this we went and played pin the spot on the lady bug--our version of pin the tail on the donkey. We got this idea from Party City who had this game already packaged up and ready for you to buy at $4.99. We knew at home we had a large piece of paper and could make our own and that's just what Lauren did. She drew the ladybug and cut out all of the spots. During the game we wrote the girls' names on their spots so they could see where their spots landed on the bug, or wall. It was a lot of fun.

Lauren blindfolded and getting spun 3 times

Close!

 

 

 

 

The last activity was outdoors. I had found butterfly nets at Target for only $1 a piece so I had bought a bunch along with some lightweight orange balls which acted as bugs and the girls paired up and threw the bugs back and forth to each other and caught them in their nets. They had a lot of fun with this game, too, and the girls got to take a net home with them along with their goodie bags. After this we brought out jump ropes, hula hoops, bubbles and they played outside until their parents came to pick them up.

Over all, Lauren's party was a huge success and I'm so glad we did it at our house and got creative with our cake, games, and activities. Believe it or not...she already knows what she wants as her party theme next year!